by Matt Krantz, USA TODAY

by Matt Krantz, USA TODAY

More than a year after its much-maligned IPO, Facebook is thumbing its nose at critics and on the verge of getting back over its initial public offering price.

Tuesday, Facebook stock came within four cents of its $38 a share IPO price before fading in the final minutes of trading, closing up $2.20, or 6.2%, at $37.63. Trading was heavy with about 173 million shares trading hands.

Regaining the $38-a-share mark would be a milestone for Facebook since it symbolizes investors recognizing that the company's promise at the time of its IPO could finally materialize. It's also a reward for patient investors, who paid $38 a share at the IPO, on May 17, 2012, and suffered paper losses of more than 50% during that time.

The company has been dogged with concerns it wouldn't translate to mobile devices, other services would replace it as a cool place to post information and consumers would get turned off by privacy questions and increased advertising. The stock was also hampered by the seemingly non-stop release of additional shares after the IPO due to timed lockup expirations.

But following last week's quarterly earnings release, which showed strong revenue growth fueled by demand for mobile ads, the story for Facebook has turned positive.

Facebook's IPO, expected to ignite a renaissance of Internet IPOs, did everything but. Shares of the No. 1 social networking stock peaked at $45 its first day of trading before closing up 0.6%. It quickly broke down from there, losing roughly half its value as of last September when shares fall as low at $17.55.

But the stock has been moving higher as of late, jumping more than 30% in a week, as investors saw the company's progress in mobile and other areas when it reported quarterly results last week.

Breaking above $38 will be the vote of confidence the stock needs.

"It is a psychological barrier more than anything, as the company's fall from grace after the IPO has remained a sore spot for investors and employees," says Colin Sebastian, analyst at R. W. Baird. "For the executive team, it represents some validation by the market that the company's mobile pivot and technology-driven platform improvements are finally paying off. After all, advertisers can't ignore more than a billion users forever."

Some might think that individual investors who bought into the IPO at $38 would be itching to sell now that they're back at break even. If that theory is right, the stock could come under pressure. But just the opposite is more likely, says Francis Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com. "Now that Facebook is performing better, (investors) believe in it even more," he says.

That's not to mention that at the time of its IPO, Facebook's "mobile strategy was a mess and wasn't working. Now it's a good share of revenue," Gaskins says. Plus the stock market at large is higher and investors have more confidence in stocks in general. "Investors will get excited (about Facebook) all over again."